UConn has killer instinct to capture another title - CBSSports.com

[HooperScooper]

From Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com.

The scary part, per Hurley: "We've got great potential to be much better than we are right now."

He's unquestionably right. UConn is not at full strength and didn't even have an outstanding game Monday. Yet it beat the 15th-ranked team on a semi-neutral floor by 10 at a 1.23 points per possession clip. It's yet to see greatness from the guy expected to be its greatest player (Clingan). The Huskies will take losses, but at this moment, it seems reasonable to expect this team to be better in the regular season than last season's club.

UConn is ready to go, eager to close and again has the look of a team capable of winning the national title

The Huskies are on the verge of setting an NCAA record for most consecutive double-digit wins over nonconference opponents

www.cbssports.com

 

[B1GEast]

It probably pained Norlander to have to write something nice about UConn. He was a doubter.

 

[HooperScooper]

It probably pained Norlander to have to write something nice about UConn. He was a doubter.

To that point, a reminder that Hurley always has a scoreboard clocking in his mind. The man is continually in search of slights and motivations; it's why he's become a great coach. To wit: After his presser Monday night, I walked with him back to UConn's locker room to capture a few additional quotes for this column. Before I could get my first question in, Hurley playfully piped up: "Did you rank us yet?"

See, I had UConn 13th in the preseason — perhaps as low as anyone. I put too much emphasis on the importance/departure of Sanogo, Hawkins and Jackson. Connecticut has a tremendous coaching staff and it's clear to see now how stocked the cupboard was. The Huskies again have the makeup to be one of the best rosters in the country. Though they're yet to play multiple ranked teams, Hurley's team looks the part of a top-five outfit and is yet to veer into a bad stretch of basketball.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

Connecticut has won 22 straight games by 10 points or more vs. out-of-league foes, putting the program two wins away from a distinct record. Per ESPN Stats & Information, the high-water mark for most consecutive double-digit nonconference wins is 23 by North Carolina from 2008-10. UConn's next two games are at home against Manhattan and New Hampshire, meaning this record will almost definitely be theirs in less than a week's time.

Breaking records!!!!

 

[Huskyforlife]

To that point, a reminder that Hurley always has a scoreboard clocking in his mind. The man is continually in search of slights and motivations; it's why he's become a great coach. To wit: After his presser Monday night, I walked with him back to UConn's locker room to capture a few additional quotes for this column. Before I could get my first question in, Hurley playfully piped up: "Did you rank us yet?"

See, I had UConn 13th in the preseason — perhaps as low as anyone. I put too much emphasis on the importance/departure of Sanogo, Hawkins and Jackson. Connecticut has a tremendous coaching staff and it's clear to see now how stocked the cupboard was. The Huskies again have the makeup to be one of the best rosters in the country. Though they're yet to play multiple ranked teams, Hurley's team looks the part of a top-five outfit and is yet to veer into a bad stretch of basketball.

I know as fans we take everything too personal. But for the life of me I can’t figure out why so many media members had us outside the top ten pre season, there’s just no justification for it.

 

[BGesus4]

I know as fans we take everything too personal. But for the life of me I can’t figure out why so many media members had us outside the top ten pre season, there’s just no justification for it.

The justification was in the post you replied to, we lost Hawkins, Sanogo, and Jackson.

 

[auror]

The justification was in the post you replied to, we lost Hawkins, Sanogo, and Jackson.

A poor ranker looks at what a team lost and not what it has left (and how those pieces fit together) compared to other teams.

 

[87Xfer]

A poor ranker looks at what a team lost and not what it has left (and how those pieces fit together) compared to other teams.

The majority of rankers are poor rankers. It is what it is.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

This guy basically used both hands and tickled the ba l l s in this piece and made fun of himself for his pre-season ranking. Short of committing ritual suicide I'm not sure what else he could have done.

 

[TheChamps990411]

We have a lot of basketball to play but if no major injuries pop up its crazy to think but this team may be better than last year and when that team was rolling it was literally 15 points better than everyone else in the country. What does this team look like when 1. DC gets in shape 2. The freshmen, especially Castle take that step forward and 3. Johnson continues to improve. This is going to be a juggernaut that will have answers for just about everything you can throw at them. If Johnson continues on his trajectory by March the rotation of Clingan/Johnson may be too much for any front court to deal with and may be better than Sanogo/Clingan last year.
I can imagine a day when Hurley throws out the usual starting lineup which is among the best in the country only to sit them down and bring in Johnson, Solo, Diarra and Stewart who could all be demons on defense and run up and down like a group of gazelles wearing down teams. If this team gets to that point its game over for the rest of the country. But as i said theres a long way to go and lets see how this team develops. I like our chances.

 

[superjohn]

I know as fans we take everything too personal. But for the life of me I can’t figure out why so many media members had us outside the top ten pre season, there’s just no justification for it.

A lot of these guys don't know much about basketball but the guys who had us the lowest are basically the bozo crew of college hoops...Goodman, Seth Davis, and Norlander.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

A poor ranker looks at what a team lost and not what it has left (and how those pieces fit together) compared to other teams.

Yes, I’m a UConn fan so I’m biased but based on our roster, I thought we were a legit Top 3 team to start the season. Not sure how a team like Michigan State was ever ranked above us. Doesn’t make sense unless the voters are just dumb which is probably why that happened.

 

[Waquoit]

Between this article and last night's infomercial, that's some big-time props. Pretty soon some will stop seeing us as victim.

 

[jibsey]

The majority of rankers are poor rankers. It is what it is.

A majority of rankers are wankers.

 

[Dove]

A majority of rankers are wankers.

A majority of wankers are bankers.

 

[ctchamps]

Between this article and last night's infomercial, that's some big-time props. Pretty soon some will stop seeing us as victim.

You could not ask for a better article to make a case that UConn is the best basketball program in the country.

Scratching my head that people are choosing to use this thread to make negative comments towards someone who wrote such a glowing article about the team, Hurley and the program.

 

[Huskyforlife]

The justification was in the post you replied to, we lost Hawkins, Sanogo, and Jackson.

Every team in college basketball loses players. Rankings should be based on the current roster.

 

[auror]

Every team in college basketball loses players. Rankings should be based on the current roster.

The main thing to me (and Norlander mentions it in the article) is that people underrated Hurley, and underrated our scheme.

When Spencer committed, people highlighted his fit, pretty much only talking about his shooting. But nobody (outside of diehard UConn fans) really talked about how we were going to start 5 high level (relative to their height/position) passers in a scheme that emphasizes player and ball movement.

 

[DogMania]

The majority of rankers are poor rankers. It is what it is.

Not defending any of those who try to rank the field, but how many of us knew how well and how quickly this year's UConn team would develop? I thought the potential to be good was there, but didn't expect them to look this good so early in the season.

It's somewhat of an act of futility to rank teams the first few weeks of the season where just about every team turns over their roster year to year.

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

To that point, a reminder that Hurley always has a scoreboard clocking in his mind. The man is continually in search of slights and motivations; it's why he's become a great coach. To wit: After his presser Monday night, I walked with him back to UConn's locker room to capture a few additional quotes for this column. Before I could get my first question in, Hurley playfully piped up: "Did you rank us yet?"

See, I had UConn 13th in the preseason — perhaps as low as anyone. I put too much emphasis on the importance/departure of Sanogo, Hawkins and Jackson. Connecticut has a tremendous coaching staff and it's clear to see now how stocked the cupboard was. The Huskies again have the makeup to be one of the best rosters in the country. Though they're yet to play multiple ranked teams, Hurley's team looks the part of a top-five outfit and is yet to veer into a bad stretch of basketball.

Hey props to him admitting he was wrong. I do think it’s a little wrong to rank a national champion so low preseason based on the guys we retained and had coming in especially in the transfer era, but it’s not outrageous given we arguably lost our 3 biggest stars.

Honestly I think this team has at least outperformed my preseason expectations. Karaban has been probably our best player so far, which to be honest I’m not surprised given how underrated and consistent he was as a freshman last year. But did not see the play out of samson and diarra especially. I was always high on Samson since he was a freshman, just didn’t expect him to play at such a high level and make such a big impact after two injury riddled seasons and looking lost last year. Diarra has been the biggest surprise to me, guy can actually run the offense well after I figured he’d just be a defensive specialist / energy guy like last year.

Compared to last year I still have doubts about our bench, as we have 8 players we can play in close games right now and that’s including castle, versus last year where we ran 9-10 deep at this stage and that wasn’t including slamson. Definitely see opportunity for Stewart, Ross and even romouglou to step into that calcaterra role where they’re not expected to perform game to game consistently but they could win a few games for us.

One last thought, how ridiculous was it that ESPN was comparing Spencer to Calcaterra at one point this last game? I think we all can guess why they said that, but they should be comparing Spencer to Hawkins, not the guy that was 9th or 10th off the bench…

 

[TheChamps990411]

A lot of these guys don't know much about basketball but the guys who had us the lowest are basically the bozo crew of college hoops...Goodman, Seth Davis, and Norlander.

Goodman is by far the biggest clown. Hes so bad i think hes simply trolling. No way he as dumb as some of the things he says make him look. He likes to get under the skin of certain fan bases.

 

[Kitaman]

Dominating non conference opponents is so satisfying. However the Big East is our Krptonite.

Just saying it's so weird that we can be the best team in the County, but not in our Conference. No doubt we've got to find a way to get our Crown back.

 

[jibsey]

I hate talking title at this time of year. In our case as long as we have good health we can be in position to do damage but we’ve all seen top ranked teams go down in that crap shoot.

 

[dennismenace]

I know as fans we take everything too personal. But for the life of me I can’t figure out why so many media members had us outside the top ten pre season, there’s just no justification for it.

I don't think they have grasped the amount of changes the program has made and embraced (because they work). It really has to do with Hurley's maturation and leadership and making better decisions. To me he has become more open minded and calmed down. He is recruiting character (will they fit?) guys in addition to great athletes. He is not afraid to make changes and take responsibility. I can't prove it but I think he leans more on his staff now than in the past. I am so happy for him and the team and families. I don't think the media sees the unity and unselfishness of the team which comes from leadership and establishing what he calls "a culture" which might be similar to "identity" (this is who we are.......this is what we all expect of each other and this is what we do). I clearly heard that in the postgame interview with Karaban. Loved hearing that. Texas coach had another adjective for it by contrasting his own team with Uconn: "they just weren't tough enough"

 

[Hankster]

The justification was in the post you replied to, we lost Hawkins, Sanogo, and Jackson.

Yes we did. So far it looks like they haven't lost a step. Amazing.